The Last Carry on YouTube

The Last Carry is now on my YouTube channel! I uploaded a video of me reading the poem last week, and it's already reached over 350 views. I do feel YouTube is another useful (free!) resource for poets to get their poems out there and transmit the pauses, the accelerations, the cadences, the stresses, the aural textures, etc, etc, that come alive when poetry's read aloud.

I do hope you enjoy it...!

A thousand likes

I can't quite believe that my poem ‘The Last Carry’ has now reached over a thousand likes on Bluesky, many of them from people beyond the poetry bubble. Oh, and a fair few of those likes have then gone on to generate sales of Whatever You Do, Just Don't. All in all, a terrific example of how social media, when functioning at its best, can generate new readers for poetry.

Christopher James' The Ice Sonnets

Well, I probably shouldn't write a review of Christopher James' new pamphlet, The Ice Sonnets (Dithering Chaps, 2025), given that my endorsement appears on its back cover, but I can recommend it thoroughly and suggest you get hold of a copy for yourself by visiting the Dithering Chaps webshop. To give you a flavour of this top-notch collection, here's that aforementioned endorsement...

‘In The Ice Sonnets, Christopher James tells the story of Shackleton’s expedition via a collage effect of juxtaposing exquisitely drawn pen portraits of its participants, interweaving the characters, drawing out the group dynamics that develop in extreme conditions. These poems tell a highly specific tale with universal ramifications.’

The poem and you

The poem is sitting opposite you, watching while you read it through. Once you raise your eyes from the page, it catches your glance. Takes a sip of its glass of Tempranillo. Lets you think. Then sends you back to the beginning to reread it again in light of the ending.

You draw up some more chairs: one for your memory, one for your dreams, another for your imagination. The poem pours them all a glass of that Tempranillo. They swirl it and sniff. Clink glasses in a silent toast. Start talking among themselves. You even dare to join their conversation.

And that’s when the poem stands up, drains its glass, and quietly leaves. Its job is done.

The Power of Celebrity

About a month ago, Alice Roberts, the famous broadcaster, author and academic, shared my poem, ‘The Last Carry’, on Bluesky. It jumped from 650 to 850 likes in a day. Dozens of people followed me. Was any of this relevant or lasting? Was it just a momentary hit?

Well, I sold several copies of my books on the back of her act, as did HappenStance Press, my publisher. And then those new followers have since struck with me. Moreover, there's one key thing that they have in common: none of them are so-called poetry people. All of them are from beyond the bubble, and now they're all reading the other poems that I post on BlueSky, often engaging with them.

In other words, the power of celebrity is huge when it comes to enabling poetry to reach out beyond the bubble. By simply sharing a poem on social media, famous people are breaking down barriers, inviting their followers to read verse in their daily lives. Of course, we're not proposing pop stars here, but instead cultural figures whose followers might well enjoy written poems if they get over the prejudices that were probably inculcated by Eng Lit GCSE and the dreaded National Curriculum.

This phenomonen may offer us a fresh, additional strategy for promoting the genre. I'd suggest it shouldn't be underrated when institutions are considering how best to promote poetry to a wider audience and readership. If they're actually, seriously, interested in doing so, that is...

Last week's Rogue Strands event in London

Mat and I had a great audience of 35-40 for our Rogue Strands event in London last week. Poets met readers, readers met poets, pints were drunk, books were sold, people were brought together by a shared love of poetry.

It felt ace to have facilitated all that, and we'll be back with more in 2026!

Tim Love on Whatever You Do, Just Don't

Tim Love is a scrupulous reviewer, bringing an analytical, scientific eye to bear on the poetry he tackles. This is why I'm especially chuffed he should have reviewed Whatever You Do, Just Don't so positively on his Litrefs Reviews site (see link here).